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I think I'm looking forward to this. The last game I played that resembled this genre in any way was PSO on the Dreamcast (and a bit of Blue Burst on PC). I got addicted, seriously, as seems to be common for these types of games. I'm not worried about that now, but still miss the positives of these types of games.

I *was* hyped for Diablo III... about 2 years ago, but then everything they announced in the last year put me off. I'm at the point in my life where I can take or leave games, so I decided to leave Diablo III as I can't support Blizzard/Activision's business practices or give them my money (for anything, honestly don't think I've ever bought an Activision product). I actually don't care if it's brilliant underneath all the layers of bs, it makes no difference to me at all.

So I am putting my Diablo-like eggs into Torchlight 2's basket, which from what I've read is a better game anyway. The mod stuff sounds interesting too. Another reason to not touch Diablo III's completely locked down game. In an era where mods are becoming official thanks to Steam, what an ignorant step backwards (for purely commericial reasons. Where's the love, man?). Hopefully texture modding is an option in Torchlight 2... not that it looks bad, just a bit, well, y'know.

Played through the beta once in a single player game on normal with an Embermage, which was really fun. Not sure I am interested enough to play through the whole game, Diablo 2 burned me out a bit and I have a hard time getting excited over ARPGs these days. What is lacking at the moment is an inventory sorting button, or maybe I just missed it. And there is a ton of useless junk dropping, at least on normal difficulty. The skill system seems alright, although there were few skills that seemed to bring anything new to the table - I can only speak for the Embermage though.

Played through the beta once in a single player game on normal with an Embermage, which was really fun. Not sure I am interested enough to play through the whole game, Diablo 2 burned me out a bit and I have a hard time getting excited over ARPGs these days. What is lacking at the moment is an inventory sorting button, or maybe I just missed it. And there is a ton of useless junk dropping, at least on normal difficulty. The skill system seems alright, although there were few skills that seemed to bring anything new to the table - I can only speak for the Embermage though.

Useless junk is good, selling it while not even going to town is best part that was implemented since Tl1

I think I'm looking forward to this. The last game I played that resembled this genre in any way was PSO on the Dreamcast (and a bit of Blue Burst on PC). I got addicted, seriously, as seems to be common for these types of games. I'm not worried about that now, but still miss the positives of these types of games.

If you've disappeared down that hole before and are wary of doing it again, and have been out of the clickfest loop that long, you might be better off with Torchlight, depending how much having the company of other humans while you drool at a screen matters. I don't really like the time investment these games tend to want, and Torchlight did better in that respect than any I've tried since Diablo. NOT Diablo 2, of which Torchlight 2 looks very much like a rerun - more expansive, more varied, more everything but focused and mercifully brief.

Useless junk is good, selling it while not even going to town is best part that was implemented since Tl1

True that, I don't really mind picking it up and sending my pet selling it in town (btw, this is a funny comic on the implications of this system) but most of the time I know that I won't be using the items if they haven't dropped from a boss or golden chest. Guess this is a core element of hack & slash ARPGs, so there.

Played through the beta once in a single player game on normal with an Embermage, which was really fun. Not sure I am interested enough to play through the whole game, Diablo 2 burned me out a bit and I have a hard time getting excited over ARPGs these days. What is lacking at the moment is an inventory sorting button, or maybe I just missed it. And there is a ton of useless junk dropping, at least on normal difficulty. The skill system seems alright, although there were few skills that seemed to bring anything new to the table - I can only speak for the Embermage though.

After the first half an hour, I made the basic items invisible so I only see green drops and better. That way a lot of the screen clutter is removed.

I would also like a sorting function, the best I could think of was double clicking on the tab of a particular inventory/stash screen sorts the items. Don't know if it's worth it to post on their forum, do they read it at all?

An irritating point for me is that when I shift-click on something in the inventory, the item is moved to the pet inventory. But I don't want the pet tab to show, just move the item and that's it. Maybe there's an option I skipped.

As for the game itself, I found it quite fun, really like all the classes except for the barbarian so far. The thing is that I expected the barbarian to be wielding a huge hammer and smashing faces, but the engineer actually fills that role. Still 3 out of 4 is good, and maybe I can just learn to play and then I'll like the barbarian as well. :)

P. S. Now that I see pakoito posted about the gems. It's a change I approveof because before I was always saving all the tiny gems, improving them and almost never actually using them because I "had" to max it first. This way it's one worry less.

edit: And another thing, an option to turn on auto pickup of healing/mana potions would be nice.

Berserker is sort of fun but I found a nigh unwinnable fight very early on. All of the champions seem a bit like unfair fights. They seem to be immune to any sort of stun/knockback/slowdown/debuff/whatever, move fast as fuck, and hit like trucks. Since the berserker needs to get close to hurt them, and isn't hugely resilient herself... Add to that the aura the champion emits that empowers all nearby mooks, and I got absolutely fried 3 seconds into a dungeon. Not fun.

Got into the beta a few days ago and leveled up an Engineer to 18, the game is pretty much exactly what I expected. The core gameplay feels a lot like the original Torchlight and not much has changed aside from the addition of an overworld as opposed to the repetitive dungeons of the original. Though there is an overworld now, it feels more like a dungeon due to how it's randomly generated (seems to be more closed in than most ARPGs).

Overall I'm just not very impressed by it, there isn't really anything new about the game. The combat feels very similar to the original, though it's definitely a bit more difficult (though I didn't die a single time despite playing on Veteran). Personally I think the combat feels a bit off, Titan Quest and Diablo 3 feel much smoother. Normal enemies aren't too much of a threat and if you're low on HP you can run around in circles (you run much faster than most enemies) while popping health potions. The only enemies that felt like an actual threat were the uniques/bosses, though that was mostly due to their insanely high health pools. None of them did all that much damage but you're basically required to burn through potions solely because of how long the fights last.

The character customization is about as generic as you can get, you have 4 stats you can spend points in (Dexterity seems to be the least useful as even ranged damage is increased by Strength) and a basic skill tree. Each skill has 15 ranks which encourages you to stick to using the same few as opposed to experimenting/trying out other skills (and respeccing is only available until level 10). The abilities themselves were OK, some were more interesting than others but overall it seemed like they were pretty poorly balanced (hopefully fixed by release unlike in TL1), for example the Engineer's gun turret seemed to do more damage than my actual character.

I'm hoping that the current graphics aren't at max due to beta as they're currently worse than TL1's. I'm normally a fan of cartoony graphics but these are very low res/poly. Despite how bad it looks, I've been struggling with FPS in bigger fights and I'm practically always under 60 (Phenom II 965 @3.8ghz + 5850). I'm also having some issues with being able to see where my character is in bigger fights, you're pretty tiny and most enemies are considerably larger than you.

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I really don't think this would be getting as much hype if it wasn't for Diablo 3's issues. Personally I've been really enjoying the game itself, it's a shame that Blizzard chose to implement strict DRM and reject mods.

Got into the beta a few days ago and leveled up an Engineer to 18, the game is pretty much exactly what I expected. The core gameplay feels a lot like the original Torchlight and not much has changed aside from the addition of an overworld as opposed to the repetitive dungeons of the original. Though there is an overworld now, it feels more like a dungeon due to how it's randomly generated (seems to be more closed in than most ARPGs).

How does that even. "It feels like a dungeon due to how it's randomly generated." What.

Originally Posted by elfbarf

Overall I'm just not very impressed by it, there isn't really anything new about the game. The combat feels very similar to the original, though it's definitely a bit more difficult (though I didn't die a single time despite playing on Veteran). Personally I think the combat feels a bit off, Titan Quest and Diablo 3 feel much smoother. Normal enemies aren't too much of a threat and if you're low on HP you can run around in circles (you run much faster than most enemies) while popping health potions. The only enemies that felt like an actual threat were the uniques/bosses, though that was mostly due to their insanely high health pools. None of them did all that much damage but you're basically required to burn through potions solely because of how long the fights last.

Except an entirely new combat system, smoother animations, much quicker fights (even on Elite, which I play on 99% of the time), overworlds etc. Did you actually progress at all in the game? Or did you just complete up to the first hub?

Originally Posted by elfbarf

The character customization is about as generic as you can get, you have 4 stats you can spend points in (Dexterity seems to be the least useful as even ranged damage is increased by Strength) and a basic skill tree. Each skill has 15 ranks which encourages you to stick to using the same few as opposed to experimenting/trying out other skills (and respeccing is only available until level 10). The abilities themselves were OK, some were more interesting than others but overall it seemed like they were pretty poorly balanced (hopefully fixed by release unlike in TL1), for example the Engineer's gun turret seemed to do more damage than my actual character.

To say the stats are generic is downright insulting, misleading and wrong. Whilst strength increases damage output, dexterity increases crit chance and ability to wield ranged weaponry. Constant crits will undoubtedly make up for lack of strength etc.

Originally Posted by elfbarf

I'm hoping that the current graphics aren't at max due to beta as they're currently worse than TL1's. I'm normally a fan of cartoony graphics but these are very low res/poly. Despite how low-tech it looks, I've been struggling with FPS in bigger fights and I'm practically always under 60 (Phenom II 965 @3.8ghz + 5850). I'm also having some issues with being able to see where my character is in bigger fights, you're pretty tiny and most enemies are considerably larger than you.

I think it's pretty, personally, but I can agree with you on the character size thing.

Originally Posted by mrki

As for the game itself, I found it quite fun, really like all the classes except for the barbarian so far. The thing is that I expected the barbarian to be wielding a huge hammer and smashing faces, but the engineer actually fills that role. Still 3 out of 4 is good, and maybe I can just learn to play and then I'll like the barbarian as well. :)

It's really simple to play Barbarian as a two hander class. Just get a decent two hander and make an Arctic build. You want abilities that add +% weapon damage that don't apply both hands.

How does that even. "It feels like a dungeon due to how it's randomly generated." What.

Compared to other games, Torchlight 2's overworld feels very closed in. it just seems like their the world generator tries to fill in a bit too much and you end up with a bunch of closed-in areas/tight pathways which makes it feel more like a dungeon as opposed to outdoors.

Except an entirely new combat system, smoother animations, much quicker fights (even on Elite, which I play on 99% of the time), overworlds etc. Did you actually progress at all in the game? Or did you just complete up to the first hub?

Regardless of the "entirely new combat system", the game feels very similar. I don't remember the original being slower-paced, I basically ran around the entire game spamming Explosive shot which destroyed everything quite easily. If anything I found TL2 to be slower, you definitely need to kite enemies around as they tend to form huge packs which will instantly kill you if try to take them all at once.

If you read my post, you'd see that I got to level 18. I'll probably end up completing the rest of it later.

To say the stats are generic is downright insulting, misleading and wrong. Whilst strength increases damage output, dexterity increases crit chance and ability to wield ranged weaponry. Constant crits will undoubtedly make up for lack of strength etc.

I don't see how it's insulting at all, the stat system is pretty generic. Strength increases physical damage, Dexterity increases crit/dodge (though in most games it also increases ranged damage), Focus increases elemental damage/mana, and Vitality increases health/defense. There's nothing wrong with it at all, just the way it's set up isn't very interesting. PoE's passive skill tree is an example of a more interesting system, though it has its own fair share of flaws.

I think it's pretty, personally, but I can agree with you on the character size thing.

I don't think it's terrible by any means, I was just expecting the game to look better than the first. The art style is a bit brighter (which is nice) but the textures/models seem worse than TL1's.

Compared to other games, Torchlight 2's overworld feels very closed in. it just seems like their the world generator tries to fill in a bit too much and you end up with a bunch of closed-in areas/tight pathways which makes it feel more like a dungeon as opposed to outdoors.

Compared to other games, Torchlight 2's overworld feels very closed in. it just seems like their the world generator tries to fill in a bit too much and you end up with a bunch of closed-in areas/tight pathways which makes it feel more like a dungeon as opposed to outdoors.

What other games? Skyrim, maybe? I've yet to come across any part of the overworld I could say was closed in. I've only came across like four tight pathways and they're more valleys to open up into the bigger overworld.

Originally Posted by elfbarf

Regardless of the "entirely new combat system", the game feels very similar. I don't remember the original being slower-paced, I basically ran around the entire game spamming Explosive shot which destroyed everything quite easily. If anything I found TL2 to be slower, you definitely need to kite enemies around as they tend to form huge packs which will instantly kill you if try to take them all at once.

If you read my post, you'd see that I got to level 18. I'll probably end up completing the rest of it later.

Go play the original again.

Originally Posted by elfbarf

I don't see how it's insulting at all, the stat system is pretty generic. Strength increases physical damage, Dexterity increases crit/dodge (though in most games it also increases ranged damage), Focus increases elemental damage/mana, and Vitality increases health/defense. There's nothing wrong with it at all, just the way it's set up isn't very interesting. PoE's passive skill tree is an example of a more interesting system, though it has its own fair share of flaws.

Saying that its generic because they improve logical things doesn't make any sense. The stat system is significantly more complex than most hack'n'slash games.

You have to think that every stat is useful for (pretty much) every class. THAT'S why it's a good system.

Originally Posted by elfbarf

I don't think it's terrible by any means, I was just expecting the game to look better than the first. The art style is a bit brighter (which is nice) but the textures/models seem worse than TL1's.